An online news site reported last week that presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, surging into second place among Republicans in many polls, suffered from debilitating migraine headaches that sometimes “incapacitated” her and occasionally required hospitalization.

One need not be a cynic to think the timing of the disclosure was intended to trip up her momentum, but on Tuesday and Wednesday the Minnesota congresswoman forthrightly admitted she suffered from periodic migraines but that they were controllable with medications, which she specified, and did not interfere with her workload and schedule. Looking rather far down the road, Bachmann said the migraines would not interfere with her ability as commander in chief.

She followed up with a letter from Congress’ attending physician attesting that the migraines were infrequent and controllable.

If Bachmann is as forthcoming as she seems, the congresswoman has set a breakthrough standard for candidates being open and honest about their health issues.

But the tradition, and it is a long and disturbing one, has been for presidents and presidential candidates to conceal, misrepresent and often outright lie about medical problems.

One of the saddest was in 1972 when the Democratic nominee for vice president, Sen. Thomas Eagleton of Missouri, was forced off the ticket after it was disclosed that he had been hospitalized for severe depression and had taken antipsychotic medication.

Perhaps most notorious was President John F. Kennedy, whose Addison’s disease, chronic back pain and other ailments were treated with an array of drugs and painkillers, some of them administered by a physician called “Dr. Feelgood” who later lost his license.

It wasn’t until much after March 1981 that the public learned how close President Ronald Reagan came to death in that assassination attempt. This led to a brief era of candor when, in 1987, the public heard more about Reagan’s colonoscopy, polyp removal and prostate surgery than perhaps they cared to.

Bachmann deserves credit for her openness. And whatever obstacles she encounters on the campaign ahead, questions about her migraines should not be among them.